Since Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, has American Literature achieved transcendent greatness? Are the attributes that made Scout Finch such a memorable and profound narrative vehicle still present and accessible in our national literature? Has anything since achieved that level of awareness concerning civil rights and the struggles of the marginalized in our society today?
Are we innocent in claiming this nation, “our land.” What are the consequences of our past?
Well, as you probably guessed, there is an answer to be found. I am being bold here in my firm claim and belief that Louise Erdrich’s 2012 novel, The Round House, is the new To Kill a Mockingbird of our time. Not only that, this novel probably is the true essence of where we stand today – on the margins between times, peoples, and nations – through the eyes of the confused and innocent – the young and the abused.
It is impossible to read this novel and not be moved in some way. There is a twist of the ancient – a connection to the present – and a tension that permeates the American family, the American identity – and growing up through the confines of a reservation. There is a little bit of every genre to be found here. There is lightness and darkness, and their is both tragedy and comedy to be found here. This book is a true impactful tour de force…and the last time I ever read anything like it was when I read To Kill a Mockingbird.
I believe this book achieves what others have tried to do but failed – books like Middlesex, Swamplandia, and yes, even the beloved and powerful Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. Those novels are great in their own way – and do a lot of emotive, powerful things. But that high level they were searching for is present in The Round House – symbolic, purposeful, but very, very simple. The Round House is the quintessential American novel – coming of age, coming of culture, a moving feast of imagery, narrative – rich, beautiful and sad. I can not say enough about how powerful this novel is.
I’ve said all of these things without going into any real detail – but it isn’t just beauty here – there is a definitive plot, characters, events, that seem effortlessly crafted by someone in full control of where she wanted her novel to go. This truly is Erdrich’s masterpiece.
We are all very ignorant about life on the Native American reservation- and the current struggles of jurisdiction, culture, education, and identity that permeate the poverty and barrenness of our systematic murder and disenfranchising of the tribal people who occupied this land before our European ancestors set up shop. But this story is not meant to be a preachy political statement. It’s a landscape painting in time – an archive of a family and the imprint their lives and relationships both had on the land they lived on and the land they lived with. Extremely powerful, believable, and influential – this is the story our youth should be reading in their classrooms to better understand who WE are – and who we want to be.
This novel is absolutely beautiful.
The Circus gives it a echoing, firm, and triumphant A +.
Everybody read it!
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